Custom flow items and draw surrogate animation

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Tommy H asked Oct 5, '18 tannerp converted comment to answer Oct 5, '18

Custom flow items and draw surrogate animation

I want to use a custom 3D shape as a flow item object. I've added an object to the flow item bin and changed its shape to an FBX file. Seems to work okay in a test source-processor-sink setup. I can see my object move across the stock processor model.

Next, I want to use a different custom 3D shape as a fixed resource object. I started with a BasicFR object, changed its shape using an FBX file, looks ok. In the Animation Creator, I added a component, changed its 3D shape using another FBX file, throw in a simple animation, all good.

This is where I'm stuck. How to animate the custom flow item object within a custom fixed resource? I think I understand the concept of surrogate. I added a component as a child of the one I added earlier. In the quick properties/component properties, under Draw Surrogate, I don't see my custom flow item that I added to the Flow Item Bin in the list.

What I'm looking to do is to have the flow item brought to the custom fixed resource by a custom task executer (haven't yet figured out how to do this, but one problem at a time). Then the flow item is "animated" by the fixed resource. Then the task executer takes it away.

Software Version:

FlexSim 18.2.2

animation flow items animation creator surrogate

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Tommy H commented · Oct 05, 2018 at 08:26 AM

Ok, I can't tell if it's working and I'm just not realising it.

I went back a couple of steps and instead of BasicFR, I used a Processor, then did all the things I mentioned before.

In the Animation Creator, I selected Main Object Content as the Draw Surrogate. I set the Animation Variables under the component properties. I added the trigger OnEntry to start the animation and set the animation variable to the "item". I also uncheck the "Show Contents".

In a test set, source-queue-my custom processor-sink, the 3D shape I used for my flow item and also the surrogate (?) is always there. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

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Answer 1 · 2018-10-05T08:36:03Z

Tommy H answered Oct 5, '18

So it looks like selecting Main Object Content was what I did wrong. That and putting the surrogate object as a child of the first object I added. I also added an OnExit trigger to set the animation variable to 0.

Made those changes and I think it's working now.

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